more white about them in their winter than in their summer dress. Some of the species are considered not unpleasant food when young, and the eggs of many are also eaten.

The generic characters are-the bill long, or middlesized, strong, hard, compressed, sharp edged; culmen much curved towards the tip; gonys strongly articulated; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the bill, longitudinal, and pervious. Legs slender; tarsi as long,. or longer than the middle toe, naked above the joint. Hind toe very short. Wings very long. The colour

of the upper plumage is generally ash coloured, varying from light bluish to blackish, the quills being dusky, with black tips; and all the under part white. The extreme whiteness of the under gives them a most

beautiful appearance when cleaving the air with that graceful ease which is common to the family, and more especially when contrasted with a gloomy sky or the dark blue of a serene atmosphere. Although some of the species exhibit a daring, tyrannous character, others are so gentle in their manners, so pure in their colours, and so graceful in their motions, that, in so far as these qualities are concerned, they may vie with the dove. They associate together in large flocks,

feeding in the greatest harmony, hovering in mazy dance over the edge of the breaking wave, or wheeling in extended circles in the air.

One of the most elegant, as well as numerous and common, species on our coasts is the Larus ridibundus, or Laughing Gull, as it is termed, from the peculiar laughing noise that it utters when disturbed. It is distributed over many latitudes, and resorts to low marshy ground and pools of water during the breeding season. In such places it is still found to breed in England and Scotland, more particularly the latter. The nests are formed on the tops of the smaller "tumps" in the fens and marshes. The only preparation for the reception of the eggs being a flattening of the surface by the feet. The eggs are two or three in number, of an olive colour, with darker blotches. They are very clamorous in their breeding places, particularly before a change in the weather, when the more humid state of the atmosphere appears to affect them, as well as some other birds and animals, bringing out the sludge worms and mire insects, which afford a bountiful repast to them. During winter they retire more to the sea-shore, where they may be seen in large flocks upon the sand, at the edge of the water, or mixing with rooks and jackdaws, and following the tracks of the plough with the like fearlessness. They may also be observed playing about the margin of the surf for a considerable time in one spot, displaying by turns the milk-white downy feathers of their under parts, and the delicate ash-grey of the back and wing-coverts; occasionally alighting upon the water, with expanded tail and upraised wings, to

procure with their bill some favourite food. At this season the head is entirely white, with the exception of a small patch in front of the eye and another at the ear-coverts; but in the summer the head and nape is of a brownish-black, except a few white feathers round the eye. The feet, bill, and orbits are red ; irides hazel; rump and tail-feathers white. The young are mottled brown and white; have the bill dusky, with more or less of a reddish tinge at the base, and the feet yellowish; tips of the wings and tail-feathers black. In the second year they more approach the colour of the mature birds, but they have the head white in winter before it becomes dark in summer. Though this bird measures fourteen or fifteen inches in length, its weight is only between eight and nine

ounces.

These birds are easily domesticated, and are very ornamental as well as very serviceable in gardens, where they pick up slugs, snails, worms, and other destroyers of vegetation, while the birds themselves injure nothing. Formerly the young of this bird was considered a dainty dish at table. These are the Sea Gulles of the ancient great festivals. In the Household Book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland, began in 1512, these Sea Gulles are among the delicacies for the principal feasts, and they are charged at one penny or three-halfpence a-piece. Selby says that the eggs are well flavoured, and when boiled hard are not easily distinguished from those of the Lapwing, for which they are sometimes substituted.

The largest species of this genus is the Blackbacked Gull (Larus marinus), which measures at least

two feet and a half in length, and six feet in the stretch of its wings, the weight of the bird being about five pounds. It is a bird of the northern regions, but does not extend to very high latitudes. Its superior size gives it an advantage over the smaller species, which it does not fail to apply when any food is to be obtained by the exercise of its powers and authority. It is a very voracious feeder on all kinds of garbage and carrion. It likewise devours fish, and is said to take advantage of a living prey which cannot resist its attacks. Black-backed Gulls are met with, but by no means plentifully, along most of our coasts, usually alone or in pairs, and rarely in flocks of more than eight or ten together. They breed on rocks in the Bristol Channel, and in rocky situations on the Scottish coasts. The colour of the upper parts of this bird is bluish-black; with the head, neck, breast, rump, tail, and under parts white. Bill yellow; angle of the lower mandible bright red. Feet light flesh coloured. Quill-feathers of the wing black, marked with white bars, and having white tips. The young, till the third year, are mottled with brown and white. Some of the characteristic habits of this bird are thus described by Audubon. High in the keen air, far above the rugged cliffs of the desolate shores of Labrador, proudly sails the Tyrant Gull, floating along on almost motionless wing, like an eagle in his calm and majestic flight. On widely extended pinions, he moves in large circles, constantly eyeing the objects below. Harsh and loud are its cries, and with no pleasant feeling do they come on the winged multitudes below. Now onward he sweeps, passes over

each rocky bay, visits the little islands, and shoots towards the mossy heaths, attracted perhaps by the notes of the Grouse or some other birds. As he flies over each estuary, lake, or pool, the breeding birds prepare to defend their unfledged broods; or ensure their escape from the powerful bill of their remorseless spoiler. Even the shoals of the finny tribes sink deeper into the waters as he approaches; the young birds become silent in their nests, or seek for safety in the clefts of the rocks; the Guillemots and Gannets dread to look up, and the other Gulls, unable to cope with the destroyer, give way as he advances. Far off, among the rolling billows, he spies the carcase of some monster of the deep, and, on steady wing, glides off towards it. Alighting on the huge whale, he throws upwards his head, opens his bill, and, louder and fiercer than ever, sends his cries through the air. Leisurely he walks over the putrid mass, and now, assured that all is safe, he tears, tugs, and swallows piece after piece, until he is crammed to the throat, when he lays himself down, surfeited and exhausted, to rest awhile in the feeble sheen of the northern sun. Great, however, are the powers of his stomach, and ere long the half-putrid food which, vulture-like, he has devoured is digested. Like all gluttons, he loves variety, and away he flies to some well-known isle, and, not content with eggs, devours the young. Neither the cries of the parents, nor all their attempts to drive the plunderer away, can induce him to desist until he has again satisfied his ever-craving appetite. But, although tyrannical, the Great Gull is a coward, and meanly does he sneak off when he sees a Skua